HANOI (AFP) — Vietnam’s foreign ministry said Tuesday it had summoned a US journalist who says he was beaten by police over his coverage of ongoing protests by Catholics seeking a return of land seized in the 1950s.

The ministry confirmed press reports that it had summoned Associated Press journalist Ben Stocking on Monday, without specifying what was said or what additional action would be taken.

The AP has accused Vietnamese police of beating Stocking, the agency’s Hanoi bureau chief, as he tried to cover the start of construction Friday of a public park in Hanoi on land claimed by the Church, a move denounced by Catholics.

Police took Stocking’s camera and, when he asked for it back, hit him on the head with it and punched him, the AP said in a report datelined from Bangkok.

He then spent two and a half hours in a police station before being taken to a clinic where he received four stitches to close a head injury, the agency said.

Vietnam has denied the allegations, and accused Stocking of violating Vietnamese law by taking photographs in an off-limits zone.

The Vietnamese police daily, Cong An Nhan Dan, said Stocking had been summoned “to receive a warning,” adding that the ministry was contemplating further action.

The daily run by Vietnamese security forces, An Ninh Thu Do, carried the same report, adding that the foreign ministry had accused Stocking of slandering security forces by saying they had beaten him.

The US embassy in Vietnam said it had lodged a protest with the government over the incident at the construction site, where dozens of Catholic priests, monks and nuns had gathered.

On Tuesday, construction of the park continued behind security barriers covered with barbed wire. A few Catholics prayed at the site, but were left alone by security forces.

New York, September 19, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the actions of Vietnamese police who assaulted Associated Press reporter Ben Stocking, after detaining him in Hanoi today. Police detained Stocking, AP’s Hanoi bureau chief, while he was covering a Catholic protest.

Anonymous video footage posted on YouTube shows two men obstructing Stocking as he tries to photograph a prayer vigil, which was staged in protest against city development of land claimed by the church. The men, one of whom wears a uniform, then lead the obviously unwilling journalist from the scene. The footage does not show the rest of the incident described in the report.

“This brutal police treatment of a working journalist is completely unwarranted,” said Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director. “Journalists should be free to report civil unrest in Vietnam without fear of violence from the authorities.”

In the AP story, Stocking says police confiscated his camera then punched and kicked him when he asked for it back. He also says they hit him in the head with his camera when he reached for it at the police station where he was later taken for questioning, opening a wound which required four stitches.

The AP said it will protest the incident and that the U.S. Embassy had filed a formal protest. Stocking was allowed to leave police custody with an embassy official to seek medical treatment, the report said.

It was not clear whether police obstructed other reporters at the protest site.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Vietnamese officials have denied beating an Associated Press reporter in Vietnam while he covered a Catholic prayer vigil in the communist country.

The denial comes a day after Ben Stocking, the Hanoi bureau chief for The Associated Press, was released from police custody after about 2 1/2 hours and required four stitches on the back of his head. His camera was confiscated by police.

Vietnam’s foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung posted a statement Saturday on the ministry’s web site that said, “Stocking broke the Vietnamese law by deliberately taking pictures at a place where taking pictures was not allowed.”

“There was no beating of Mr. Ben Stocking by the Vietnamese security force,” the statement said.

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam Foreign Ministry spokeman denied accusations that an AP reporter had been beaten, but reiterated that the foreign reporter has violated the country’s laws.

“According to reports that we have received, Ben Stocking has violated Vietnam’s laws by intentionally taking photos at prohibited areas,” spokeman Le Dung said when he was asked for the reasons why AP reported Ben Stocking had been arrested for two hours and beaten by the police on September 19.

Dung also said security guards had told the reporter not to take photos but he refused to comply with.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — An Associated Press reporter in Vietnam was punched, choked and hit over the head with a camera by police who detained him Friday while he covered a Catholic prayer vigil in the communist country.

Ben Stocking, the Hanoi bureau chief for The Associated Press, was released from police custody after about 2 1/2 hours and required four stitches on the back of his head. His camera was confiscated by police.

“They told me I was taking pictures in a place that I was not allowed to be taking pictures. But it was news, and I went in,” Stocking said by telephone from Hanoi.

Stocking, 49, was covering a demonstration by Catholic priests and church members at the site of the former Vatican Embassy in Hanoi, which is currently the subject of a land dispute between the church and city authorities.

The city had started to clear the site Friday after announcing a day earlier that it planned to use the land for a public library and park — a significant development in an already tense relationship between the church and state in Hanoi.

After Vietnam’s communist government took power in 1954, it confiscated property from many landowners, including the Catholic Church. The church says it has documents showing it has title to the land.

Within minutes of arriving at the prayer vigil, Stocking said, he was escorted away by plainclothes police who took his camera and punched and kicked him when he asked for it back.

Taken to a police station for questioning, Stocking tried to reach for his camera and an officer “banged me on the head with the camera and another police officer punched me in the face, straight on.” The blow from the camera opened a gash at the back of his head.

Transferred to another police station to give a written statement, Stocking was permitted to leave with a U.S. Embassy official to be taken to a medical clinic.

The AP is protesting the incident, seeking an apology from Vietnamese authorities involved and insisting on the return of Stocking’s property.

“It is an egregious incident of police abuse and unacceptable treatment of a journalist by any civilized government authority,” said John Daniszewski, the AP’s managing editor for international news. “Ben Stocking was doing his job in a calm, reasonable and professional manner when he was escorted away and violently assaulted.”

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Angela Aggeler said a formal statement of protest was filed with the Foreign Ministry.

The Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to e-mail and telephone requests by the AP seeking comment.

Violence is rare against international journalists in Vietnam, which has strict controls that govern press activities and travel. Foreign media have to register with the Foreign Ministry and get permission to go to remote provinces.

The first portion of Stocking’s arrest was captured by an anonymous cameraman and posted on YouTube.

“Presently, police are installing checkpoints and cordoning off my home to prevent me from attending a demonstration,” activist Nguyen Ba Dang said.

‘Working session’

Meanwhile, democracy activist Do Duy Thong was also summoned to a “working session” last weekend, his wife Ho Thi Ba said from the couple’s home near the capital, Hanoi.

“On Sept. 13, more than 10 men from the Thuong Tin district police department under Ha Tay province arrived at our home to demand that my husband report to a ‘working session,’” she said. “He had been previously forcibly taken in for questioning. His camera and mobile phone were confiscated [without being returned].”

Protesters had planned to march to the Chinese embassy Sept. 14 to protest Beijing’s claim over the Spratly and Paracel Islands.

“Around 11 a.m., when I just finished cooking I asked them to allow him to have lunch before leaving, but he was instructed to report immediately to the session and have lunch later. I pleaded to them that because the meal was ready he should be allowed to have lunch. Also, he wasn’t guilty and he wouldn’t finish the session until late in the afternoon,” Ho Thi Ba said.

‘Accident’ threatened

Nguyen Ba Dang, based in the northern province of Hai Duong, said he had been threatened with arrest if he left his neighborhood and with attack through a road “accident” staged by criminal gangs.

He said he had been approached by officials right up to provincial government level.

“It’s the Nam Trung village police, then the Nam Sach district police, and finally the Hai Duong province police. Also, it was the staff of the Information and Indoctrination Department of Hai Duong province that came to my home with a threat that I not leave my locality,” he said.

Hanoi-based Nguyen Phuong Anh reported a similar experience.

“What happened to me was that they threatened to cause me a traffic accident if I left tomorrow, Sept. 14,” to attend a demonstration outside the Chinese embassy over the territorial dispute surrounding the Spratly and Paracel Islands, Anh said.

“My son, a fourth grader, was later hit in a staged motorcycle accident around 4 p.m. this afternoon, Sept. 13,” he said.

“It was the police who advised me not to leave home. They’ve already threatened me as they did to poet Xuan Quynh-Luu Quang Vu. Look! There are six, seven men being posted in front of my house,” he added. The condition of his injured son wasn’t immediately known.

Hospitalized

Ha Tay-based Vu Hung, who was dismissed from his job as a high school physics teacher two months ago because of his contacts with Vietnamese democracy activists, was sent to hospital after his “working sessions” with police.

“Now I am very exhausted from being constantly interrogated by the police. Presently, they’re keeping a tight lid on the information about me as I am closely guarded,” Vu Hung said.

“All that I want to say in these difficult circumstances is that everyone, college students in particular, should focus on carrying out the demonstration plan successfully. I won’t be allowed to leave home even I really want to.”

Protest was trigger

Students who planned to attend the Sept. 14 demonstration said it was the trigger for the arrests.

“They arrested and detained the people fighting for democracy and human rights as these people were preparing for the protest on Sept. 14,” one student said.

“This action goes to show that the state is afraid of the subject of democracy and freedom in Vietnam. The Vietnamese authorities’ action goes against the constitution of Vietnam. But that is not unusual in Vietnamese society.”

“They don’t want the activists to have the opportunity to inform the people how the state is being oppressive and totalitarian, of what democracy and human rights mean for Vietnam,” the student said.

“These actions actually made us youth more determined to attend the protest to let the state know that we, the younger generation, are not cowards. We don’t bow to force, and we don’t accept the humiliation of losing our land and our territorial waters,” he added.

Rights criticism

Overseas rights groups slammed the detentions, which coincided with the visit of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte for bilateral talks on security issues, economic ties, and human rights.

“Vietnam’s government is well-known for having zero tolerance for free expression,” Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on the group’s Web site.

“The current wave of arrests of democracy activists is a thinly veiled effort by the government to silence independent bloggers, journalists, and human rights defenders in Vietnam,” she said.

Human Rights Watch called for the immediate release from prison of a prominent internet writer and activist, Nguyen Van Hai, known by his pen name Dieu Cay, who was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Sept. 10.

Following Dieu Cay’s closed-door trial, police detained and interrogated at least a dozen other democracy activists, bloggers, and human rights defenders, it said.

Many of the activists detained this week, like Dieu Cay, have participated in protests against China’s claims to the disputed Spratly [in Vietnamese, Truong Sa] and Paracel [Hoang Sa] islands.

Original reporting in Vietnamese by Viet Hung and Hien Vy. Vietnamese service director: Diem Nguyen. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

(dpa) – Four Hanoi police officers were suspended from duty just hours after a local news website posted a video clip showing them taking bribes from motorists who had violated traffic laws, a police official said Monday.

The police department of Hanoi’s Ba Dinh district suspended the four officers, members of the district’s emergency response force, on Monday morning, according to Pham Van Binh, deputy chief of the department.

“We decided to suspend them for what they did and we have launched an investigation into the case,” Binh said.

Earlier Monday morning, the news website VnExpress.net posted a video clip showing four policemen taking money from people who had violated traffic regulations before letting them go, without issuing traffic tickets or reporting the violations. The clip was filmed Friday, according to the website.

In the clip, the police are shown stopping motorbike drivers not wearing helmets or going the wrong direction on one-way streets. They then accept money from the drivers before letting them go.

The website said the motorbike drivers had paid the officers up to 300,000 dong (18 dollars) each.

According to Vietnamese traffic laws, riding the wrong way on a one-way street or failing to a wear a helmet when riding a motorbike is subject to a cash fine of 200,000 dong (12.5 dollars). Police can also seize violators’ motorbikes for 30 days.